Assabet Valley seniors graduate

Monday

Jun 5, 2017 at 2:28 PMJun 5, 2017 at 2:32 PM

After four years, the Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School seniors left their work boots and safety glasses, smocks and spatulas behind, and donned royal blue caps and gowns on June 3. Two hundred sixty-one students crossed the stage to cheers and camera flashes.

Student Council President Brian Colleoni-Pimenta, of Hudson, gave the invocation, welcoming parents and friends, staff and administration.

Valedictorian Anna O’Connell, of West Boylston, reminded students how some had discouraged her from attending Assabet, telling her that she would not go to college. She said that her studies at Assabet actually helped her to achieve her goals. O’Connell will be attending Worcester Polytechnic Institute this fall, majoring in chemistry. She was in the drafting and design program at Assabet.

Salutatorian Alden Vedder, of Shrewsbury, an advanced manufacturing student at Assabet, also took the Advanced Placement Engineering courses offered, and will be at Wentworth Institute of Technology in the fall, with plans to study mechanical engineering. Vedder congratulated his classmates who are planning on joining the military, commenting that he is full of respect for them.

Other speakers were Class President Elliana Davis, a cosmetology student from Shrewsbury, and Giselle Perez, an electrical wiring student from Maynard, both of whom commented on the camaraderie of their class, the things they have accomplished as a group, and the connections they have with their teachers and counselors. Davis will study accounting at Framingham State University, and Perez will continue an apprenticeship on her way to becoming a master electrician.

Guest speaker, chosen by the students, was Richard Manning, a social studies teacher and girls soccer coach at the school. Metal fabrication students had handcrafted a rose sculpture as a thank you memento for Manning. Davis handed over the symbolic gavel to Jack Nugent, the president of the class of 2018, and Perez gave Superintendent Ernie Houle a check as a gift to the school from the graduating class.

The senior chorus members with other Select Chorus students entertained the full auditorium at the DCU Center, as did the Assabet band. As the choral group sang “I’ll Be There,” students and parents waved their cellphone flashlights aloft in time to the music. Mortarboards were decorated with sayings, flowers, pearls, sparkles, and even mini-lights, and were tossed in the air as the traditional ending to the ceremony. As the new graduates filed out, they were met by parents and grandparents, siblings and friends, showering them with flowers, stuffed animals and lots of hugs.

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